Shifting trends mark million-vote Inq.net poll on Iglesia rally
The politicians who “sought to accommodate” the Iglesia ni Cristo in their statements aired during the protest rally two weekends ago emerged the biggest losers in a week-long Inquirer.net online poll. A large plurality of the votes cast—495,668 votes or 47.79 percent of the total—identified “politicians like Poe, Binay, and Escudero” as those who “lost the most in the test of wills” that was the Iglesia protest action.
Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero and Vice President Jejomar Binay had issued statements supportive of the INC at the start of the protest.
But the online poll, which generated a total of 1,037,261 votes by September 4 (the most ever), was marked by massive shifts in trends. Started soon after the protesters left the intersection of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and Shaw Boulevard on the morning of Monday, August 31, the poll ended the first day with about 80 percent of over 6,000 participants pointing to politicians as the main loser.
On Tuesday, September 1, came the first big shift: The influential if controversial church was perceived as losing the test of wills, “because its show of force paralyzing Metro Manila angered many citizens.” Some 15,759 votes identified the Iglesia ni Cristo as the biggest loser; that was 54.45 percent of the 28,942 votes cast as of 12 noon.
On Wednesday morning (September 2), the tide had changed again. This time, government strategy in containing the protest action (“its maximum tolerance policy seemed weak and took four days to work”) received a plurality of the 74,556 votes cast as of 7:30 am.
Less than 12 hours later, the last major shift occurred. Some 50,295 votes out of 122,540 cast as of 6:30 pm — or 41.04 percent — pointed to the politicians again as the main losers. In the next two days, as more supporters of the three organized groups joined the online poll and hundreds of thousands of additional votes were generated, the trend lines began to hold firm. The politicians came first, then the government, then the Iglesia ni Cristo. At all times, “Metro Manila residents,” with “the aggravation they suffered over the weekend,” came in last — that is, came off best.
The poll closed on Friday, with the following results: 495,668 votes identified the politicians “like Poe, Binay, and Escudero” as having “lost the most” (47.79 percent); followed by the government (322,553 votes, or 31.1 percent); then the INC (127,462 votes, or 12.29 percent); and finally Metro Manila residents (91,578 votes, or 8.82 percent).
The Inquirer.net poll is not a scientific survey. It is an interactivity tool that can, within its limits, reflect the interests of online readers. JN
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